Post by 3PHector on Jan 24, 2015 16:59:47 GMT
www.theguardian.com/environment/keystone-xl-pipeline
Congress has recently approved the Keystone Pipeline XL (KXL) project to build a gigantic oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada, all the way down into Oklahoma and Illinois, in the United States. This project has been very controversial. The Republicans claim KXL will create jobs and wealth, while the Democrats claim it will ruin the environment and add to global warming.
Congress has recently been taken over by the Republican party and they are trying to make the Keystone XL happen, even though President Obama has already said that he will veto it, no matter what. In Nebraska there was a lawsuit against the pipeline that President Obama was using to delay the decision, but the suit was thrown out. This was probably thanks to a nefarious act by a Republican judge who didn’t consider the objections to the pipeline. There is a huge political debate over this right now and neither side is willing to compromise.
So why do Republicans think KXL is a good idea? Republican Senator Mitch McConnel said, “Today’s ruling provides the perfect opportunity for the president to change his unproductive posture on this jobs project and reverse his veto threat”. The Republicans are making the point that it will create many jobs, so that is a plus. But that is about the only positive argument for the pipeline. Democrats like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders say that while the project will create construction jobs, it will only add about 35 permanent jobs, and that it would be better to invest in our crumbling infrastructure, which would add many more jobs.
There are already plenty of pipelines leading from Canada into the U.S. We don’t need more oil from Canada. This is because recently, fracking, a new drilling technique, has allowed us to become more energy self-reliant, and is already supplying enough resources to lower U.S gas and oil prices. What the Republicans don’t understand is how easy it is to deplete oil and gas, and how long a process it takes to replenish these resources. The U.S is very dependent on these resources, but we should try to use less, not more, for in the future it would be disastrous if the U.S didn’t have enough oil. And we have the past to prove this. In 1973 the OPEC Embargo caused a huge oil shortage, and caused violence and distress in the U.S. History likes to repeat itself. This is a pressing reason why the U.S doesn’t need more oil, but global warming and pollution is perhaps the most important problem we have to deal with now.
This pipeline would be a setback towards the U.S’s reliance on clean energy. This would convince more people who get jobs out of this that that oil is a good thing. This will not only create more green house gasses but the pipeline will also leak and pollute the ground and water which could disturb surrounding ecosystems. Its current route runs over the biggest underground water aquifer in the midwest called the Ogallala Aquifer. This is extremely important for the midwest because the corn crops, humans, animals, and trees all need this to survive. If the KXL pipeline leaked it would pollute the aquifer and we would have another disaster like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on our hands.
It is clear that the Republicans are not doing this for the benefit of the United States, but to repay big oil companies for their support in their take-over of Congress. Democrat Frank Pallone says, “We get all the risk, while the oil companies will reap all the rewards” of the pipeline. Unless the people of the United States can stop the KXL project, the rich will just continue this cycle of exploitation, while the majority of humans and the ecosystem will suffer.
Congress has recently approved the Keystone Pipeline XL (KXL) project to build a gigantic oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada, all the way down into Oklahoma and Illinois, in the United States. This project has been very controversial. The Republicans claim KXL will create jobs and wealth, while the Democrats claim it will ruin the environment and add to global warming.
Congress has recently been taken over by the Republican party and they are trying to make the Keystone XL happen, even though President Obama has already said that he will veto it, no matter what. In Nebraska there was a lawsuit against the pipeline that President Obama was using to delay the decision, but the suit was thrown out. This was probably thanks to a nefarious act by a Republican judge who didn’t consider the objections to the pipeline. There is a huge political debate over this right now and neither side is willing to compromise.
So why do Republicans think KXL is a good idea? Republican Senator Mitch McConnel said, “Today’s ruling provides the perfect opportunity for the president to change his unproductive posture on this jobs project and reverse his veto threat”. The Republicans are making the point that it will create many jobs, so that is a plus. But that is about the only positive argument for the pipeline. Democrats like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders say that while the project will create construction jobs, it will only add about 35 permanent jobs, and that it would be better to invest in our crumbling infrastructure, which would add many more jobs.
There are already plenty of pipelines leading from Canada into the U.S. We don’t need more oil from Canada. This is because recently, fracking, a new drilling technique, has allowed us to become more energy self-reliant, and is already supplying enough resources to lower U.S gas and oil prices. What the Republicans don’t understand is how easy it is to deplete oil and gas, and how long a process it takes to replenish these resources. The U.S is very dependent on these resources, but we should try to use less, not more, for in the future it would be disastrous if the U.S didn’t have enough oil. And we have the past to prove this. In 1973 the OPEC Embargo caused a huge oil shortage, and caused violence and distress in the U.S. History likes to repeat itself. This is a pressing reason why the U.S doesn’t need more oil, but global warming and pollution is perhaps the most important problem we have to deal with now.
This pipeline would be a setback towards the U.S’s reliance on clean energy. This would convince more people who get jobs out of this that that oil is a good thing. This will not only create more green house gasses but the pipeline will also leak and pollute the ground and water which could disturb surrounding ecosystems. Its current route runs over the biggest underground water aquifer in the midwest called the Ogallala Aquifer. This is extremely important for the midwest because the corn crops, humans, animals, and trees all need this to survive. If the KXL pipeline leaked it would pollute the aquifer and we would have another disaster like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on our hands.
It is clear that the Republicans are not doing this for the benefit of the United States, but to repay big oil companies for their support in their take-over of Congress. Democrat Frank Pallone says, “We get all the risk, while the oil companies will reap all the rewards” of the pipeline. Unless the people of the United States can stop the KXL project, the rich will just continue this cycle of exploitation, while the majority of humans and the ecosystem will suffer.
